Buyer’s Guide: The Thing (2011)

Hey guys, I don’t ever do this, but I’m gonna go ahead and recommend picking up The Thing on Blu-Ray when it drops on the 31st. There’ll be a new review shortly after then — just to show my appreciation. It’s a movie that somehow introduced novelty into its form as a remake, and makes for a highly entertaining monster flick.

This sounds like advertising, and I’m even wondering why I write this. The Thing (2011) isn’t the best movie I saw that year, but it’s very close to my heart. It also gets mixed into a fandom-related argument I find myself engaged in — don’t let personal bias get in the way. I won’t promise you’ll be blown away, but The Thing (2011) is like all remakes, prequels, sequels, or 3D re-releases: it does nothing to sour the original’s reputation as a classic, and stands on its own as an effective entry into sci-fi/horror canon.

3 comments

You’re writing it because you enjoyed the movie and want other people to put their fanboy biases aside and give it a chance, that’s why. 😉

I remember you mentioning that you’ve been “cheating” by watching clips on YouTube, and so have I. The more I watch them, the more I think, “What the fuck were people complaining about? These monster effects are great.” I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: there’s gonna be a major re-evaluation of this movie in a few years, once everyone’s knee-jerk hatred of remakes and CGI wears off.

I completely agree that in time the hate will be lifted. It seems natural anyhow — The Thing 1982 stands as a clear example, as we know. The effects are always criticized for being CGI, and this feels like post-Transformers backlash. When that dies down, maybe fans will see that if they went 100% animatronics, it wouldn’t have been nearly as dynamic, and they would’ve taken criticisms for being too slavish to the original